Mine to Possess (Psy/Changeling, #4)

by Nalini Singh

A Psy/Changeling novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Shards of Hope, Shield of Winter, and Heart of Obsidian..."the alpha author of paranormal romance" (Booklist).

A ghost returns from a leopard changeling’s past, making him question everything—even his base animal instincts…

Clay Bennett is a powerful DarkRiver sentinel, but he grew up in the slums with his human mother, never knowing his changeling father. As a young boy without the bonds of Pack, he tried to stifle his animal nature. He failed…and committed the most extreme act of violence, killing a man and losing his best friend, Talin, in the bloody aftermath. Everything good in him died the day he was told that she, too, was dead.

Talin McKade barely survived a childhood drenched in bloodshed and terror. Now a new nightmare is stalking her life—the street children she works to protect are disappearing and turning up dead. Determined to keep them safe, she unlocks the darkest secret in her heart and returns to ask the help of the strongest man she knows...

Clay lost Talin once. He will not let her go again, his hunger to possess her, a clawing need born of the leopard within. As they race to save the innocent, Clay and Talin must face the violent truths of their past…or lose everything that ever mattered.

• ISBN10: 0425220168
• ISBN13: 9780425220160
• Publish Date: 5 February 2008 (first published 1 February 2008)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780425220160

Reviews

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

Mine to Possess is the fourth book to the Psy-Changeling series. I love this Paranormal Romance series, which has Changelings (shapeshifters), Psy (no-feelings, cold-hearted beings), and Humans. Each book follows a new couple, and this time, I finally found out which heroine would win over Clay Bennett. 

Female Protagonist: Talin McKade is human, but she’s familiar with the Psy/Changeling world. She was best friends with a changeling when she was younger, but things changed after that one awful night that changed her life. Now she’s a social worker helping children that live on the street. She wants them to have a better life than she did when she was little. I liked her character because she may be human, but she’s a fighter in her own way. She went through horrible things as a child, which made me upset. I can’t stand when children get hurt. (I’m glad the person or people that were hurting her are no longer in her life due to a particular male character.) There were times she drove me crazy with how she handled things. She was stubborn, but I understood her character a little better after finding out more about her story.

Male Protagonist: Clay Bennett is a leopard shifter sentinel for DarkRiver. He’s one that tried to suppress his leopard inside of him and ended up doing the unthinkable by killing someone. He lost his best friend when he did kill. He had never known how to be a part of a clan until DarkRiver took him in, and now he’s one of the fiercest sentinels. I liked Clay’s character in this book, even though, at times, he did come off as a brute. He changed from Visions of Heat because he was a complete jerk in that book to a particular female character. Clay is the character that is a big-time alpha and can also be very playful.

Storyline/My Thoughts: Talin McKade has sought out Clay Bennett to help the street children she works with to protect. The children are disappearing, and she needs his help to track them down and find out who keeps taking them. Clay Bennet thought Talin was dead after he got of jail for killing Talin’s foster father. Now he will do anything to keep her in his life. It does take a while for their relationship to grow again. Clay fears that Talin is scared of him for what he did to her foster father. Talin is fearful of another reason why she shouldn’t get close to Clay. When she reveals the truth to him, Clay is determined more than ever keep her in his life. (No more going into details about the book because I don’t want to give anything away.)

Overall, this book was another great addition to the Psy/Changeling series. I’m not too fond of the Psy Council in this book (I haven’t been fond of them since the beginning.) and what they are doing behind the scenes. Why do they always want to hurt children? I’m glad that some Psy notices that it’s wrong what is happening, and there is a rebellion behind the scenes. (The Ghost hits again in this book, and I’m anxious to find out who he/she is.) Clay and Talin’s story is a heartbreaker because of what happened when they were younger. I could understand why Clay thought Talin was scared of him. I also could understand why Talin didn’t want to get too close to Clay. Both are battling their issues. They are suitable for each other, though, and need to realize it. They were stubborn with each other. Some of the changeling characters know that Clay and Talin are meant for each other, but a certain Psy in the story has become friends with Clay and doesn’t like Talin at first. Talin puts the Psy in her place. There was quite a bit of drama in this book at first until everyone started getting to know each other better. 

This book also has Dorian in it, and if you read Slave to Sensation, you realize he has come along away, especially around Psy. I feel I already know who his mate will be since she was introduced in this book. I can’t wait to dive into this book. 

There’s a storyline in this book that had me intrigued about Psy, Changeling, and Humans from the past. I can’t wait to find out more about it in the series. I love how Nalini Singh has each book go deeper into the history of each species. She’s one of those authors who is fantastic at world-building, which is why she’s become one of my favorite authors.

Standalone or Part of Series: It’s part of the Psy/Changeling series. I would recommend reading in order.

Steaminess: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Trope: Fated Mates; Former Bestfriend-to-Lover

Would I recommend this book? Yes. I would recommend this book to Paranormal Romance readers out there. Each book follows a new couple and has a different storyline that connects. This is why I recommend reading each book in order. I can’t get enough of this series by Nalini Singh and can’t wait to dive into the next book.

Last year I read all of Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series, and this year I’m dedicating to reading her Psy-Changeling series. I can’t believe it took me this long to read her Psy-Changeling series. 

[Berls]

Yet another Psy-Changeling win... in fact, this MAY be my favorite so far (I buddy read with Anne who said it is her favorite - a solid 4.5 stars). It probably feels the most like an UF out of all of them - there's still the heavy romance element, but there's also a lot more action and plot twists (IMO).

I really liked Talin and Clay. There relationship is unique for the series - well I guess each one has had it's unique elements, but this one was even more so. Talin and Clay have a history. They knew each other as children and Clay, while defending Talin from a foster father, traumatized her by going deep into his inner animal. And, as a result, they've had no contact until now, when Talin reaches out for help. They have a past to both overcome and to grow from and I loved that unique relationship.

This is also the first human-changeling pairing. While that brought in it's own different elements - such as human authorities - I was surprised by the fact that it did not diminish the amount of Psy involvement there was in this book. In fact, I think we had more progression on the Psy plot line than we've had from any other book. And boy, are things getting exciting on that front!

I had several theories as the story played out and for the most part I was wrong - LOL - but I was circling the truth. So close! Now I have several follow up questions and theories as a result of the way this book ended - not a cliff hanger, but the closest to one we've had thus far. Things are just moving along!

I listened, as always because, ANGELA DAWE. To me, when I see she's the narrator it's a no-brainer. She's just that good.

[thebookdisciple]

Book 4 in the Psy-Changeling series is the story of Talin and Clay. These two have a past much darker than I expected so make sure you check the trigger warnings if you have certain topics that bother you. Darkness aside, Mine to Possess is a redemption story and a second chance at love.

Talin and Clay met in their run down town as kids where Talin lived with a foster family and Clay lived with his mom. Talin adored Clay and he was her hero. Until he finds out the secret she was hiding and commits a murder. He is hauled off to juvie and Talin refuses to allow Clay to contact her. She even convinces him she is dead. But now, years later, she needs his help to save some of her street kids.

Talin and Clay's story is so sad. They both have so much pain about the events in their lives and the decisions they have made because of them. It would be easy to dislike Talin for some of her choices, but as the story unfolds, it makes sense to me. She is quite possibly one of the most believable characters I have read about when it comes to abuse survivors. Her job working with Shine makes perfect sense for her and I thought it was very cool!

Mine to Possess gives you more Sascha and Lucas, Faith and Vaughn, and even a little Judd and Brenna. This is the first book of the series with a human main character so I was glad to see that as well. While each book focuses on a new couple, I really feel that these are not stand alones. Singh does a lot of really interesting world building and each book builds a bit more! We start to learn more about the Psy who refused Silence years ago. It brings a new dimension to the story with each piece of the puzzle we get.

 

• POV: 3rd


• Tears: no


• Trope: second chance, shifters


• Triggers: Talin was sexually abused as a child. While the abuse was not described, it has such a profound impact on both the characters.


• Series/Standalone: series


• Cliffhanger: no


• HEA: yes

books by Ilona Andrews, Dannika Dark, Christine Feehan...then you will probably like Mine to Possess!

 

Mine to Possess

See full review on The Book Disciple

[Rowena]

Book 3 in the Psy-Changeling series is Clay Bennett’s book. I’m not going to get into what this story was about since Holly has already reviewed this book and because we’re reading the same books, it starts to get repetitive. So this is a friends to love (with a whole lot of drama in between) story and Nalini Singh worked her magic because even though Tally got on my hot damn nerves, I still enjoyed this book.

Trust me when I say that Tally got on my hot damn nerves. I had to put this book down a few times because Tally did or said something that made me want to throat punch her but I’m so glad that I stuck with this book because I ended up liking the book and not hating Tally.

I thought the story of the human teenagers disappearing was interesting and I was hoping and praying for the safe return of Tally’s boy, Jon. I really liked the way that this story introduced the next story and am really impressed with Singh’s ability to keep the party going. I’m a huge fan of character development and I thought that Singh did a great job of keeping me interested in Tally even though I didn’t really care for her character.

I really enjoyed getting to know Clay better and I loved seeing the bonds that he created with his packmates, especially after learning of his life before he became pack. He went from being a lone cat to being part of a family and I loved that DarkRiver accepted him the way that he was and didn’t force him to change his personality to fit in.

I’m really liking both the DarkRiver and the SnowDancer packs. Each pack is full of interesting characters that keeps me looking forward to even more from this series. When I was reading this book, I couldn’t wait to dig into Dorian’s book. I was very interested in seeing Ashaya Aleine’s character being fleshed out.

The main storyline in this book that brought the humans and the Psy’s and the Changelings together opened up the playing field for so much more and I thought Singh did a great job of dangling other stories in this one. I liked that we’re meeting other people from different races and just making the world even bigger without confusing the heck out of me.

I’m a fan of this world and this series and I liked this book. I thought the romance between Clay and Tally warmed up as I got deeper and deeper into the story. Seeing DarkRiver open their arms to everyone’s mate, no matter what race they are made me happy.

This book wasn’t my favorite book in the series but it was still good.

[Chelsea]

I really love that the author can take a character I didn’t really care for and make me fall madly in love with them. I wasn’t very impressed with Clay in the first books but after reading this one I can’t believe I didn’t like him! I love that the author can change my perspective on a character!

I also really love the plot for this one. I thought the whole kids disappearing thing was kind of cool. I mean it’s sad but the way they went about it was different. I liked the whole Psy-Human thing that was introduced too. The series is getting really interesting. I’m excited to see what happens with the Ghost since we didn’t see a lot of him in this book. I can’t wait to see who else joins the packs!

*Note: This is definitely an adult book and if you’re not over 18 I wouldn’t recommend reading this.

[EBookObsessed]

Not my favorite story of the series. I wasn't a big fan of their Clay or Talon.

[wyvernfriend]

Clay Bennett is a DarkRiver sentinel, he's a changeling leopard and his life is filled with protecting those he cares for, just like he did when he was younger and he killed a man who was damaging his friend Talin. Now he thinks she's dead and it's left a hole in his heart.

Talin McKade hadn't died, she had tried to distance herself from her past and allow him to do the same. She had survived her childhood and now works to help street children survive and find better lives. Only some of them are disappearing. Now the only person who can help her is Clay. To add to her problems she's dying...

I liked it, the two characters had to deal with a lot of their issues before they found each other, and it wasn't an easy trip. There are more twists and turns about the Psionic community that is coming out.

Enjoyable.

[Hixxup]

talin was a pain in the ass but loved clay and the plot

[Linda]

Clay and Talin had a lot of issues to work through, but they still made it. And I continue to love reading about the whole cast of characters and see what the scary psy-council is up to next. All of the books have a very easy flow, and some mysteries, some fights, and some very, very nice erotic scenes. There's nothing not to love! This world that Ms Singh has created is amazing.

[Melanie]

This series is really starting to grow on me. When I first started reading the Psy-Changeling books, I thought they were just okay. I liked the Changelings but really did not like the Psy part of the books. It could be that in the last two books neither character that was the main focus of the book was actively on the PsyNet. I was not a big fan of Judd in the last book, but by the end of his book and even more so in this book, I am really starting to like him.